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New Orleans City Council District C candidates wind down campaign at Algiers forum

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Candidates in the New Orleans City Council District C race answer questions during a forum Monday night at Federal City. From left to right, New Orleans City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, resident Carlos Williams, former School Board member Lourdes Moran and former Judge Nadine Ramsey addressed nearly 100 people at the forum sponsored by the Algiers Economic Development Foundation, Old Algiers Main Street, Westbank Redevelopment Corporation and the Algiers Council of Neighborhood Presidents.
(Andrea Shaw, NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune)

With the election just five days away, candidates for New Orleans City Council District C came home to Algiers on Monday night to make their final pitches for why they should be elected. During a fast-paced forum, the candidates repeated their stances in previous debates and interviews about crime, economic development, blight, the Algiers ferry and Federal City.

New Orleans Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, former School Board member Lourdes Moran, former Judge Nadine Ramsey and resident Carlos Williams addressed nearly 100 people at the Federal City Auditorium in Algiers. Activist Eloise Williams, also a candidate in the race, did not attend.

Clarkson said the city is already moving in the right direction toward addressing crime and will hire 150 additional officers this year. She said the NOPD residency requirement is still a roadblock that she hopes to repeal. "We are recruiting better than we've ever recruited,'' she said.

Moran said she supports hiring an additional 400 police officers, offering incentives, assessing the low morale among officers and holding the police superintendent accountable. "It's very distressing to go to neighborhood associations, talk to the citizens to learn that their calls are going unanswered. Their calls are only being recorded,'' she said. "Every violation is personal and it's important and needs to be addressed.''

Williams said the key to fighting crime is more jobs. "You've got to have jobs, they go hand-in-hand,'' he said. "We speak on the fact that we do want public safety but you have to have jobs. If I'm out of work and I don't have a job, what is going to be the result?''

On handling blight, Clarkson said that in three years, the city has eradicated 10,000 of 40,000 properties deemed blighted, and she hopes to increase that number. "We spent a lot of that time getting the laws straight, a lot between city and state, we've done it. In the next four years, we ought to be able to do, I hope, 15,000 to 20,000,'' she said.

But Ramsey said elected officials have not been aggressive in dealing with blight. "We need to be assertive about enforcing those laws to make sure that it's fair across the board. We need to make sure that it's swift,'' Ramsey said.

Williams said there needs to be stronger code enforcement and more workers to handle the problem for the entire city. "We can fine, fine, fine, but we don't have something set up that we can actually take properties from these people, to hold people accountable,'' he said.

Some of the candidates said Federal City, funded with $150 million to redevelop the former Naval Support Activity and retain Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North national headquarters, had not lived up to its potential in providing an economic boost to Algiers.

Ramsey said many residents still don't know that they can use the former Naval base and don't know there are retail businesses there. She said the community has to be supportive of those businesses, but also provide opportunities to others in the corridor surrounding the development. "Federal City was to be an anchor, an economic engine for this area,'' she said. "Come outside of the gate along General Meyer, along Newton, there has been no growth.'

Moran said promises that the mega-development would revitalize the neighborhood have fallen short: "It's still empty here.'' She said its progress has been hurt by fighting among officials over who will lead its development. "We have seen some behavior that I feel that's less representative of leadership over the development of Federal City, which is a detriment to what could have been or what the possibilities are in that area,'' she said.

Candidates were asked how they felt about the plan for sustaining the Algiers ferry. Veolia Transportation Services, which runs the Regional Transit Authority, is working to take over the boats. Ferry riders will be charged a $2 fare each way to pay for the service.

Ramsey said it is a priority to have the ferries running and funded, possibly by selling retail and advertising space. "I do not feel that having a tax upon working families should be the first way that we seek to fund the ferries,'' she said. "I believe there's a very great opportunity to have retail sales not only on the ferry itself but on the terminals.''

Clarkson said the ferries are a necessity and the lifeline to Old Algiers. She said she and the incumbent Kristin Palmer have done what they had to do to save the boats.

"That's what Algiers is all about, the ferry boat, because people earn their livelihoods going back and forth across the river,'' she said. "It's also quite an attraction to live over here, the beauty of the river and being able to ride the ferry boat. It's a great tourism mechanism.''

The forum was sponsored by the Algiers Economic Development Foundation Old Algiers Main Street, Westbank Redevelopment Corporation and the Algiers Council of Neighborhood Presidents.